Candidates and Co-ops: Where the Money Is

Rupert Murdoch has personally donated to only one 2008 presidential candidate so far, and she’s Hillary Clinton. But Mr. Murdoch’s co-op building, the Herbert Hoover-era 834 Fifth Avenue (where John Gutfreund has a cigar room in his duplex), is the only true conservative remaining among New York’s grandest apartment buildings.

All the others swing left. Even at the high-nosed River House co-op, where Henry Kissinger lives, Democratic presidential hopefuls have gotten about three-quarters of the money so far—even though, in 2004, Republicans got more than half of the building’s $163,325 fund-raising total. Mrs. Clinton now leads the pack with nine separate donations.

At 740 Park Avenue, the ritziest building on the block, Blackstone oligarch Stephen Schwarzman gave $2,300 to Mitt Romney, but liberal long-shot Chris Dodd has reaped over four times that sum from Mr. Schwarzman’s neighbors.

Lucky for Mr. Romney, he’s the only Republican to have gotten money from 1040 Fifth Avenue. Down the block at McKim, Mead & White’s 998 Fifth, every penny has gone to Democrats.

Republicans are doing a tad better elsewhere. At 770 Park, once called New York’s “Democratic presidential money pit” by the New York Post, the G.O.P. is only $8,000 away from matching its donations from 2004. Lefties, on the other hand, have $253,000 to go, maybe because Dem powerhouse Connie Milstein sold her $20 million duplex this year to a John McCain couple.

Epically, the five best buildings on Central Park West gave 32 times more to Democrats than to their rivals during the last presidential election. But Republicans have more than doubled their 2004 total. Blame Lorne Michaels! He’s given $2,300 to McCain. At the Dakota, bizarrely, Kansas’ archconservative ex-candidate Sam Brownback got that amount, too.

Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani dominated only at One Beacon Court, the glitzy new condo where Beyoncé has an apartment. He got four of the building’s six donations, which might peeve Giuliani’s successor, whose Bloomberg L.P. has its headquarters in the building.

The Observer counted only contributions made from apartment buildings—so, for instance, Mr. Murdoch’s Clinton donation doesn’t count here because he used his News Corp. office at 1211 Avenue of the Americas as his address in filings.